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Silver Dagger
If you want to hear how fluid sounding the Stones were in the early 70s then just listen to the guitar interplay between Mick Taylor and Keith on this sublime track. One of Mick Taylor's finest moments? - you betcha it is.
It sounds such a joyous and happy song but get a load of those lyrics - they're telling tales from the dark side of town. And amazingly the Stones make a virtue of this Robert Johnson classic of when uptown goes downtown.
You can just imagine Keith and Mick in their early 70s bad boy prime, off to do some shady business in a downtown juke joint. The song paints a real pitcture of debauchery - guns, drugs and loose women - and does everything to enhance the Stones' bad boy image. It's perfect for Exile and this re-reading of a 30s blues song is one of their most inspired blues covers...up there with Little Red Rooster, Love In Vain and You Gotta Move.
But the playing - the way Charlie just drives the song forward, Mick's teasing, effortless vocals, and Ian Stewart's fabulous piano make it an absolute delight.
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Silver Dagger
If you want to hear how fluid sounding the Stones were in the early 70s then just listen to the guitar interplay between Mick Taylor and Keith on this sublime track.
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marcovandereijkQuote
Silver Dagger
If you want to hear how fluid sounding the Stones were in the early 70s then just listen to the guitar interplay between Mick Taylor and Keith on this sublime track.
Quite! Except it's an interplay between the two Micks.
I have always wondered what would have become of this song if Keith would have played on it.
But that's a hypothetical question never to be answered.
Though we get a hint by listening to this version from 1995:
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Silver DaggerQuote
marcovandereijkQuote
Silver Dagger
If you want to hear how fluid sounding the Stones were in the early 70s then just listen to the guitar interplay between Mick Taylor and Keith on this sublime track.
Quite! Except it's an interplay between the two Micks.
I have always wondered what would have become of this song if Keith would have played on it.
But that's a hypothetical question never to be answered.
Though we get a hint by listening to this version from 1995:
I stand corrected marco and Dandy. Sure sounds like Keith to me. A true moment of inspiration there for Mr Jagger.
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drewmaster
Apologies to Exile worshippers, but IMO this track just does not measure up to the Stones’ best blues covers. It is bland, repetitive, and tiresome, Charlie is buried way too deep in the mix, and Jagger’s delivery seems forced.
Drew
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LuxuryStones
Great song, goes on a little too long imo. Cannot believe that's Jagger on guitar, that's Keith ?
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drewmaster
Apologies to Exile worshippers, but IMO this track just does not measure up to the Stones’ best blues covers. It is bland, repetitive, and tiresome, Charlie is buried way too deep in the mix, and Jagger’s delivery seems forced.
Drew
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DandelionPowdermanQuote
LuxuryStones
Great song, goes on a little too long imo. Cannot believe that's Jagger on guitar, that's Keith ?
You need to listen more to Keith's playing
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LuxuryStones
Great song, goes on a little too long imo. Cannot believe that's Jagger on guitar, that's Keith ?
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Silver Dagger
Perhaps it's just the two Micks feeling naughty that the governer ain't there to reign them in but boy, don't those guitars just swing, sing and soar.
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Doxa
One of the tracks in EXILE that immedeately made a huge impression for me. Being such an angry, straightforward blues number, with one of the dirtiest guitars they ever have done, it didn't need time to grew on me, unlike with many other EXILE tracks. It hit just right home, like "Rocks Off" did. I naturally assumed that it was Richards on the rhythm guitar, and I kind of thought that that's so pure and raw Richards, played with such an attitude, no other cat can do (I even started to think Keith's playing in terms of that number). So it was a huge surprise when I finally realized that it was Jagger... A similar thing that happened with "The Last Time", another 'signature Keith riff' for me at the time. You live and learn..
The careful, sublime reading and study of 30's country blues numbers, that they mastered in BEGGARS ("Prodigal Son"), LET IT BLEED ("LOve In Vain"), and to an extent still in STICKY FINGERS ("You Gotta Move") was now transformed into straight-forward 70's loud electric guitar-heavy orgy. There is not one drop of Delta left, but pure blues rock; if the Chicago cats tranformed acoustic solo numbers into electric band stuff, that so much impressed the British r&b groups of the 60's, the Stones updated the latter into 70's sound, played by the greatest rock and roll band in the world. Could be even some Johnny Winter influence there. But I guess Robert Johnson must be smiling somewhere out there, 'those devils got it, man...'
Basically, a 'modern' blues can get not much easier, text-book like, and recording it must have taken just a few minutes, and not much thinking, but shit, kids, don't try that at home... You NEVER gonna sound as bad and mean and dangerous and distinct as these guys do. The sound, man... They just were so red hot, each contributor having so much idiosyncratic color in their touch. (Unfortunately, not much, if anything, of that was left when the Stones played the song as a guest number during 1994/95. Especially Jagger's bored and boring vocals are lamer than ever.)
The passion. That's what it is.
- Doxa
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liddas
I find myself forced to rethink my comment above, but I can't reach a conclusion that makes sense.
All I know is that Casino Boogie has it, Stop Breaking Down not.
C
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DoxaQuote
liddas
I find myself forced to rethink my comment above, but I can't reach a conclusion that makes sense.
All I know is that Casino Boogie has it, Stop Breaking Down not.
C
Don't worry, our individual taste doesn't fool us, and we don't either it..
I think "Stop Breaking Down" is really one of those 'kids, don't try this at home' pieces that are theoretically so basic and simple, even tempting, to do, but to make them actually shine and to be distinct is a damn hard thing. But I very well understand that that for some ears the 'click' - the cliche and obvious transforms into something magical and irrestible - just doesn't happen, and the result remains to be a rather 'blues by numbers' kind of thing.
- Doxa
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DoxaQuote
Silver Dagger
Perhaps it's just the two Micks feeling naughty that the governer ain't there to reign them in but boy, don't those guitars just swing, sing and soar.
...the two Micks are sounding so swinging Rolling Stones they ever could sound.
I guess one charm of Jagger's ballsy rhythm guitar, with so much edge, is his 'amateur' no-bullshitting approach in playing the guitar. No hostages, straight to the point. Just the feel. The passion. Is he Keith's pupil or not, the master himself cannot have done it any better. Probably Keith had been even 'too good' to play so rough and mean...
- Doxa